We spent New Year’s eve at some American friends’ house, which is just 647m (according to Google) from ours. Being the other side of a valley though, we had to drive round, but this still only takes 10 minutes or so. They did an asado, and afterwards we watched the fireworks over Salta from their balcony.
Salta doesn’t have municipal fireworks. Everybody just sets off their own. People do invest though, and the whole city skyline erupts at midnight and stays lit from the sky above for a good 15 or 20 minutes.
It had actually rained earlier in the evening, so it was perfect conditions for fireworks - clear, but with damp foliage, reducing the usual forest fire risk.
Several of the nearby houses had great displays too, so we enjoyed those before setting off our own ‘modest‘ display at around half past 12.
I had brought a family favourite: Chinese lanterns and some hand-held, short-range multi-shots for the kids to try to shoot down the Chinese lanterns with. As I’m sure we’ve mentioned before, health and safety doesn’t really exist here in any government regulated sense, so it’s up to us to police it, which is fine - better really. Our American friends meanwhile were a ‘bit’ lashed, and were having trouble setting off their fireworks in the right direction (i.e. up). I must say, it’s the first time I’ve seen a massive rocket whizzing horizontally across a garden and exploding upon hitting a hedge before. For some reason it brough to mind a phrase from Great Expectations: ‘what larks, Pip’.
Still, everyone made it through the night intact. In fact even Elizabeth was saying that we must return to Salta for New Year again soon.
We soon settled back into Salta summer following our trip. The weather has alternated between very hot and warmish, with intermittent torrential rain and electrical storms. This is normal summer in a subtropical highland climate.
Millie decided to do summer school, to learn to swim, so she spent all her weekday mornings with a group of randoms down the hill playing games and doing swimming classes. After a few weeks of this, she does seem much healthier than her older siblings, who have poopooed the idea of summer school for years and instead spent their time vegetating around the house. Elizabeth and I meanwhile have been turning our attention to our imminent move to England, just 4 months away now.
As part of this we also realized that we need to start with the leaving parties, as there are too many people to say goodbye to at the last minute, as well as 3 parties for the children’s birthdays and for them to say goodbye to their friends properly to schedule, too.
So we kicked off with a barbecue (when in Rome…) in the middle of the month for some friends of my parents who have been very kind to us over the years.
The difficulty with them is always who to invite them with. This time we got it spot on though, with Daniel and Maria Cornejo (2 of the 3 daughters of whom are classmates of Lettie and Millie), and my friend Pablo Sylvester, son of a famous Argentine poet, and his much younger girlfriend.
There was potential for a problem too, as Pablo’s girlfriend is a devotee of the lady on the hill where we lived when we first moved to Salta. She (the lady on the hill rather than Pablo’s girlfriend) apparently cured Pablo’s girlfriend’s brother who was terminally ill when he was a child. Since then the whole family goes and volunteers when around 30,000 people turn up to meet her on the hill every Saturday. She goes along the line touching them on the head, and they pass out for a few seconds. She says Our Lady tells her to do it. The whole thing is rather strange, and the Church hasn’t sanctioned it, however she has devotees throughout South America. The issue can be quite divisive, as more traditional Catholics such as my parents’ friends don’t really approve, and call her a fraud. So there was potential for trouble, however thankfully the subject never came up and the whole asado went smoothly and was great fun for all concerned.
Salta doesn’t have municipal fireworks. Everybody just sets off their own. People do invest though, and the whole city skyline erupts at midnight and stays lit from the sky above for a good 15 or 20 minutes.
It had actually rained earlier in the evening, so it was perfect conditions for fireworks - clear, but with damp foliage, reducing the usual forest fire risk.
Several of the nearby houses had great displays too, so we enjoyed those before setting off our own ‘modest‘ display at around half past 12.
I had brought a family favourite: Chinese lanterns and some hand-held, short-range multi-shots for the kids to try to shoot down the Chinese lanterns with. As I’m sure we’ve mentioned before, health and safety doesn’t really exist here in any government regulated sense, so it’s up to us to police it, which is fine - better really. Our American friends meanwhile were a ‘bit’ lashed, and were having trouble setting off their fireworks in the right direction (i.e. up). I must say, it’s the first time I’ve seen a massive rocket whizzing horizontally across a garden and exploding upon hitting a hedge before. For some reason it brough to mind a phrase from Great Expectations: ‘what larks, Pip’.
Still, everyone made it through the night intact. In fact even Elizabeth was saying that we must return to Salta for New Year again soon.
We soon settled back into Salta summer following our trip. The weather has alternated between very hot and warmish, with intermittent torrential rain and electrical storms. This is normal summer in a subtropical highland climate.
Millie decided to do summer school, to learn to swim, so she spent all her weekday mornings with a group of randoms down the hill playing games and doing swimming classes. After a few weeks of this, she does seem much healthier than her older siblings, who have poopooed the idea of summer school for years and instead spent their time vegetating around the house. Elizabeth and I meanwhile have been turning our attention to our imminent move to England, just 4 months away now.
As part of this we also realized that we need to start with the leaving parties, as there are too many people to say goodbye to at the last minute, as well as 3 parties for the children’s birthdays and for them to say goodbye to their friends properly to schedule, too.
So we kicked off with a barbecue (when in Rome…) in the middle of the month for some friends of my parents who have been very kind to us over the years.
The difficulty with them is always who to invite them with. This time we got it spot on though, with Daniel and Maria Cornejo (2 of the 3 daughters of whom are classmates of Lettie and Millie), and my friend Pablo Sylvester, son of a famous Argentine poet, and his much younger girlfriend.
There was potential for a problem too, as Pablo’s girlfriend is a devotee of the lady on the hill where we lived when we first moved to Salta. She (the lady on the hill rather than Pablo’s girlfriend) apparently cured Pablo’s girlfriend’s brother who was terminally ill when he was a child. Since then the whole family goes and volunteers when around 30,000 people turn up to meet her on the hill every Saturday. She goes along the line touching them on the head, and they pass out for a few seconds. She says Our Lady tells her to do it. The whole thing is rather strange, and the Church hasn’t sanctioned it, however she has devotees throughout South America. The issue can be quite divisive, as more traditional Catholics such as my parents’ friends don’t really approve, and call her a fraud. So there was potential for trouble, however thankfully the subject never came up and the whole asado went smoothly and was great fun for all concerned.